The ridiculousness of it all. It's like drinking contests. There's no way this can not be damaging to the lungs especially when as the dabber says, low quality wax that still has butane in it. IMO this is sad not cool at all and sets a bad example....

The medical cannabis community has recently received some major support from well known doctors, Dr. Oz and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. These doctors switching sides to promote cannabis as a medicine, rather than demonize it, is indicative of a broader shift in the medical profession. This trend of physicians supporting medical cannabis in droves has to do primarily with the spread of information about CBD rich cannabis and its numerous medicinal benefits.

Florida recently passed a CBD only medical cannabis law, called the Charlotte’s Web law, whose name itself codifies a brand name into law. The naming of this law is a subtle advertisement reinforcing the bias towards Charlotte’s Web and away from other CBD rich strains that as just as effective, or perhaps more effective. A couple months ago, Dr. Bonni Goldstein spoke at a lecture on CBD and pediatric epilepsy held by Realm of Caring, a foundation associated with the Stanley Brothers. In her lecture Dr. Goldstein made it clear that ACDC, Cannatonic, and other CBD rich strains are comparable to Charlotte’s Web for treating epilepsy.

A word about the title of this article, a charlatan is a sort of snake oil salesman who makes claims about something that are much grander than the truth. With so many patients flocking to Colorado under the belief that only Charlotte’s Web can help them, one cannot help but wonder whether the term might apply to those who most directly benefit from that mistaken belief.

It’s not just about what strain you are using and whether it is CBD or THC rich. In fact, there is a whole entourage of over 70 cannabinoids at play in cannabis. The entourage effect is a scientifically documented phenomenon where the effects of cannabinoids are increased by the presence of other cannabinoids. Patients are increasingly seeing strains and tinctures rich in THCa, CBG and other non-psychoactive cannabinoids which have been shown to be beneficial for sufferers of seizures and numerous other conditions. THCa, CBG, CBD, and CBDa all have synergistic effects when used together. And it isn’t just which cannabinoids you are imbibing; it also is how you are consuming them.

Whether vaporized, smoked, taken as an edible or a tincture, the method of use can change how cannabis effects you. This is most notable with edibles where the liver breaks down THC into 11-Hydroxy-THC, which has a much stronger effect and explains why edibles tend to be so powerful. It is possible that the liver will also break down other cannabinoids into new forms, but that research has not been done yet.

Regrettably, most doctors are not Sanjay Gupta and know little about cannabis as a medicine, but that is beginning to change. Until it changes, it is up to patients to educate themselves about their condition and find out which method of use and type of cannabis is best for them. There is a wealthofinformation out there and new studies being released daily.

"Marijuana was put here to help us and by not smoking it you are 1.) offending god and 2.) missing out entirely"

Offending God? Really? I don't recall that passage in the bible.... As I was just telling a friend recently , I have respect for those that don't indulge in the consumption of hippie lettuce. This quote was by someone that goes on about love, peace & harmony... The statement is only offensive to Atheists, Buddists and non- Christians it comes off as judgmental and not a celebration our us humans differences...

"They have the potential to cause all the health problems that are usually associated with smoked tobacco (eg. cancers of the lungs and mouth, heart disease, emphysema, circulatory problems, etc etc etc).

Why would anyone think that blunts would somehow be safer just because you roll up weed in them? You're still smoking a big nasty slab of some of the cheapest industrial tobacco currently produced in the world (eg, swishers and stuff like that).

Not to mention, its just some country ass shit if you're rolling up good weed in a blunt. Its like going to a really nice steak house and pouring ketchup all over your ribeye, just a straight heathen move"

Why, why, WHY must people use that annoying sing song voice when making videos? It's even worse when guys do it. What's wrong with their REAL voice? Why the fake "I'm talking to a puppy or baby voice"? It's so not appealling. Please stop! LOL

It is my feeling that the FDA will approve their shitty CBD oil for every ailment people use to get the real medicine for. They will say their " drug" works on PTSD, chronic pain, seizures, lupus etc. and that we don't need medicinal marijuana and will make this CBD only medicine legal which it supposedly already is. In my opinion they're greedy bastards that don't give a shit about anything except lining their pockets with as much money as possible.

The only exception I take with this article is the bit that says the FDA seem to agree (about cannabis as medicine). Though they support the trial of CBD rich cannabis extract in the form of a patented drug, they do not support unpatented versions and they do not support legalisation of cannabis for medical use, outside of patented drugs, and they do not allow people access to this life saving medicine. People dismiss conspiracy theories about the agendas involved in denying people their right to this safe and natural medicine, but the shameful and blatant hypocrisy of the FDA, DEA and all governments position on cannabis is there for all to see. People have been asking for trials for cannabis medicines for decades, and claimed that the inability to patent cannabis has been one of the main reasons why this medicine has been held back, in other words people are suffering to protect profits. And time has shown that, rather than being some unfounded conspiracy theory, such claims are actually right on the money (excuse the pun) as all of a sudden they found a way to patent cannabis medicines, and now all of a sudden the necessary trials are going ahead. The same thing is happening with cannabis as a cancer treatment. Cannabis oil is illegal, through out most of the world, despite the abundance of evidence for it as a cancer treatment. But GW Pharmaceuticals file patent for cannabis as a cancer treatment, 20130059018, and make a patented cannabis drug, Sativex, and all of a sudden a trial is approved for it as a cancer treatment. Their epilepsy drug Epidiliox, which is what the FDA has approved trials for, is nothing more than high CBD cannabis oil, but some how they've managed to patent this, and now that the exclusive rights to profit from it have been established it can become an approved medicine. While it is great to see cannabis medicine finally become recognised and start to become available in any form, the way it has been done, with people continually criminalised for using it and unpatented cannabis medicines still prohibited is disgusting beyond description. Do the FDA have to answer for the lies they have perpetrated about cannabis medicine, now that they are conceding medical value to it. Do the US government have to answer for the contradiction of outlawing cannabis as a schedule 1 substance, denying any medicinal value to it, while they hold patents for some of the medical uses, (patent 6630507). Do any of the government, medical authorities and cancer societies have to answer for the blatant blood on their hands from their obvious deception and their suppression of cannabis medicine? Why should the same government bodies who have denied sick and dying people this life saving medicine, often criminalising many of them, now be allowed to profit from it's use? Now that their own words and actions prove them to be outright liars, why is none of the people responsible made to answer for their crimes? Even now, cannabis is prohibited and governments, including the US, are still prosecuting people for using or growing this safe, natural and effective medicine. How much more absurdities must we witness before we see medical professional, doctors and scientists stand up for the truth about this plant? How much more blatant does the corruption have to be for people to unite against it. Cannabis is demonised because governments have been allowed to outright lie, not just bend or supress the truth, but outright lie. What about the government doctors and scientists who have been complicent in promoting lies about cannabis medicine? How can these authorities get away with such behaviour? Will there ever be a time when justice is done? Will there ever be a time when this medicine is free and properly utilised for the good of the people instead of only for the profits of corporations. It is not about conspiracy theories, it is about the undeniable reality of the world as it currently is. Money rules, profits rule and truth, justice and the good of the people is not even an after thought for the scum in charge. It is way past time people got together, cut through the BS and demanded this medicine is freed immediately and all of the authorities guilty of lying to suppress this medicine should be made to pay for the suffering they have caused.

Cannabis-Based Medicines

“Opium has medical value, and it is called morphine. Marijuana has medical value, too — but just as we don’t smoke opium to receive beneficial effects, we need not smoke marijuana to get its medical value.” — Project SAM

Project SAM calls for the following regarding cannabis-based:

The rapid expansion of research into the components of the marijuana plant for delivery via non-smoked forms.

The establishment of an emergency or research FDA IND program that allows seriously ill patients to obtain non-smoked components of marijuana before final FDA approval.

The end of “cannabis clubs” and so-called “dispensaries” that are fronts for marijuana stores and do not follow appropriate standards of medical care.

We don’t have to smoke the stuff. Really.

Over the past two decades, the idea of marijuana as medicine has become increasingly popular. Citizens of several U.S. states, beginning in 1996, voted by referenda to allow the use of smoked marijuana as medicine. Countries such as Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Israel, Portugal and Spain also have some form marijuana as medicine regulation.

It is important to distinguish between the whole marijuana plant material and individual components within the marijuana plant. Some constituents of marijuana, including THC, are available today in pill form (dronabinol, or Marinol® is man-made THC); some synthetic mimics of those constituents are also available (nabilone, or Cesamet®).

The whole marijuana plant material, on the other hand, has thousands of unknown and carcinogenic components that have not been accepted by scientific and medical authorities as medicines. Medicines are rarely, if ever, smoked, and an exhaustive review in 1999 by the U.S. Institute of Medicine concluded that smoked marijuana should “generally not be recommended for medical use.”[i]Additionally, smoked marijuana’s effective dose varies, due to individual differences in absorption and metabolism in the liver, as well as puff frequency, depth of inhalation and retention of inhaled smoke.[ii]

That smoked marijuana is not medicine doesn’t mean we should not pursue cannabis-based medicines in the form of pills, mouth-sprays, injections, patches and other acceptable routes of administration.

In some countries, marijuana-based medicines — meaning medications that aren’t smoked — have been approved to treat neuropathic pain related to cancer and spasticity related to Multiple Sclerosis (MS). These products include nabiximols (Sativex®), which contains THC and another cannabinoid called cannabidiol (CBD). This mouth spray allows for proper titration of dosage and eliminates the major health consequences of inhaling smoke. The presence of CBD also tends to lessen the intoxicating effects of THC.

Current medical marijuana programs are a joke — but no laughing matter

A 2007 study analyzing more than 3,000 “medical” marijuana users in California found that an overwhelming majority (87.9 percent) of those queried about the details of their marijuana initiation had tried it before the age of 19. The average user was a 32-year-old white male. Approximately 74 percent of the Caucasians in the sample had used cocaine, and more than half had used methamphetamine in their lifetime.[i]

A 2011 study that examined 1,655 applicants in California who sought a physician’s recommendation for medical marijuana found that very few had cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma or multiple sclerosis.[ii]

The Colorado Department of Health found that only 2 percent of “medical” marijuana users reported cancer, and less than 1 percent reported HIV/AIDS as their reason for seeking marijuana. The vast majority (94 percent) reported “severe pain.”[iii]

In Oregon, there are reports that only 10 physicians made half of all recommendations for medical marijuana[iv]. Agitation, seizures, cancer, HIV/AIDS, cachexia and glaucoma were the last six conditions cited for giving people “medical” marijuana.[v]

The use of marijuana under the guise of medicine has affected youth drug use patterns. A study by researchers at Columbia University looked at two separate data sets and found that residents of states with medical marijuana had marijuana abuse/dependence rates almost twice as high youth in states without such laws.[vi] Another study in the Annals of Epidemiology found that marijuana use rates were higher among youth ages 12 to 17 in states with medical marijuana laws (8.6 percent) compared with those without such laws (6.9 percent).[vii] More research on this connection is needed.

Researching and developing

marijuana-based medicines the right way

It is clear that for some people, marijuana helps with chemotherapy-induced nausea, appetite enhancement and pain relief. But since smoking or ingesting the whole plant is undesirable, other methods should be developed for receiving the benefits of the drug. A possible solution would be to speed up research into marijuana’s components.

From 2007 to 2011, the National Institutes of Health provided more than $14 million for cannabinoid research (both clinical and preclinical) into the following diseases and conditions:

This demonstrates that if a proposed study has a high-quality trial design and an experienced investigator, the research is very likely to be approved, and perhaps even funded. It is important to understand that the people who decide whether a study is approved for funding are skilled researchers, not government officials.

Could current research and development processes be improved? Certainly.

Perhaps the federal government could develop a variety of marijuana extracts and other cannabinoid preparations and make those available to researchers.

Perhaps marijuana-derived products could be afforded fast-track status in the FDA process, even though they may only be alleviating symptoms, rather than slowing disease progression.

Perhaps such products could even be allowed to be marketed in a limited manner, based on promising efficacy data and a good safety profile (followed by one or more confirmatory studies), as is the case in Canada under its Notice of Compliance with Conditions (NOCc) program.[iii]

These and other refinements to the current system could facilitate the availability of marijuana-derived medications without sacrificing good science and proper standards of medical care. Indeed, the government could freely provide non-intoxicating extracts of marijuana, such as CBD, to those with a real need and a legitimate doctor’s oversight. This can be done legally today through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Investigative New Drug program.

Sources:

[i] We conducted a search of NIH-funded studies on the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of various diseases/conditions using the NIH Reporter. The initial search was done using the terms “cannabinoid” and “marijuana” for fiscal years 2007-2011. The lists then were pared manually to include only studies examining the use of cannabinoids for treatment. Web Search using NIH RePORT Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) website:http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. Search strings “marijuana”.

'This year there has been a major push for CBD-only legislation. Individuals and groups are lobbying for the right to use this seemingly magical “non-psychoactive” substance found in the dreaded cannabis plant. These people are claiming that CBD does the same job as THC if not better. These claims of a panacea are falling like music upon conservative politicians’ ears.

Finally there is a way they can compromise with the people’s demands and allow certain zero to low-THC, high-CBD cannabis plants to be grown and utilized without allowing the use of the highly stigmatized compound that gets people high.

The biggest claim is that CBD is non-psychoactive. THC is again being compared to psychedelic substances like psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the high associated with the decarboxylated form of THC.

Yes, THC is psychotropic; it can alter the perception and mental processing of a user in many different ways. Ninety-nine percent of the time, these effects are found to be beneficial for the user. THC delivers the mental effects by binding to endocannabinoid receptors in the brain. Scientifically speaking, CBD is technically psychoactive in the sense that is has effects on the brain, because are receptors that CBD binds to in the brain much like THC.

CBD-only legislation is not all encompassing but rather discriminatory; not all people receive benefits from this compound alone. Many patients, children like my daughter, Brave Mykayla Comstock and pediatric cannabis patient Landon Riddle rely on THC rich medications to treat not only their conditions, but the side effects of the toxic pharmaceuticals they are required to take. Both children share a diagnosis of T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and both children use cannabis oil. THC rich preparations of cannabis not only relieve all of the side effects of chemotherapy, but also cause apoptosis of malignant cells, which effectively helps to cure cancer. The entire time these children are undergoing cannabinoid therapy, they experience the “high” delivered by THC and their quality of life is better because of it.

Those who denounce the benefits of THC as a medicine because of a “high” must realize that they are then forced to take the same position against opiate based medications for children and adults. I had this debate with an oncologist who would have rather had us give Mykayla opiate based medications for pain and symptom relief over cannabis oil even though the opiate based medications come with a risk of overdose and death. Cannabis gives Mykayla a quality of life other pediatric cancer patients don’t have safe access to."

What do you think about giving children THC? Tell us in the comments below.

Recommended Sites

“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”

Sativum, Sativus, and Sativa are Latin botanical adjectives meaning cultivated, used to designate certain seed-grown domestic crops. Sativa is derived from the Latin satum, which is the supine of the verb serō meaning to sow. serō itself comes from the Proto-Indo-European language *seh₁, which gave also English sow and German sähen. The English word ‘season’ derives also from satum, as ‘appropriate time for sowing’, through the old French ‘saison’. Sativa ends in -a, because it is the feminine form of the adjective, but masculine (-us) and neuter (-um) endings are used to agree with the gender of the nouns they modify, for example, Crocus sativus – Saffron (masculine) and Pisum sativum– Pea (neuter).